Blog

My name is Charlize Cruz and I have been attending the School of Engineering and Sciences for the past five years (currently going into my senior year). The main focus at our school is, of course, engineering and sciences. These topics are emphasized through our engineering class (which we take each year), and our integrated units.

Before I joined Linked Learning, I was just another freshman in high school that had no idea how important it was to think and plan for your future. The only thing I was thinking about was hanging out with my friends and having fun. That all changed, for the better, when I joined a Linked Learning pathway.At the end of my freshman year in high school, I was given a presentation regarding the Academy of Business, a Linked Learning pathway at my school.

Entering into a new school with no friends didn’t scare me because I always knew I would be able to make new friends. But, I never pictured the idea that I would actually build more than just new friends. I built a new family.At the end of my freshman year, I was introduced to a Linked Learning program—the Academy of Business, which is located at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California.

Linked Learning is one of the greatest things to happen in my life. At STEM Academy, a Linked Learning school, they ask students to not only accomplish what we know we are capable of, but also to challenge ourselves with bigger and better goals and expectations.

During my time at STEM Academy of Hollywood, I have learned a lot about how Linked Learning schools benefit students. For instance, I recently attended the 12th Annual UC Davis Pre-Medical and Pre-Health Professions National Conference. The only high school students invited to participate were the top students in their career pathway classes, because this conference was only recommended for students interested in pursuing a career in the medical field. Because of the extra hours I put in my biomedical classes, I was one of the first to be invited to the conference.

Choosing a pathway and sticking to it was hard as a student. However, since choosing the Biomedical Sciences pathway, I have learned a lot about medical subjects, such as doing hands-on lab experiments, but I have also learned things that are universally applicable to any job or career pathway, such as answering complicated questions and critical thinking.

I spend a lot of my time at school: during regular instruction time, sports practice, after-school associated student body (ASB) events, and more. Though I have a lot on my plate in regards to academic commitments, I actually do have a life outside of school. I am a Gold Award Venturing scout and a volunteer teacher at my local Bible school. Through my leadership roles in these organizations, I have come to realize that the skills I learned in my career pathway academy have been beneficial in a variety of ways.

Each year, the seniors at Kearny are tasked with producing a Senior Defense documenting the work we’ve done that year. Pass and you graduate. Fail and you do it again until you pass. Needless to say, it’s a grueling experience.The basics aren’t that hard. Using our experience working for a client— in my case, my internship with the University of San Diego— as evidence, we must defend our right to graduate.

Although we don’t realize it, as people we are all happy to learn everyday and grow overtime. Through my internships, I have gained a lot of experience within many different work settings. However, none of my internships compare to the GMMB internship I obtained. I improved my writing skills, learned about different careers in this particular field, and also just learned how to work with others in general.

Before senior year, I had never had a job—not even babysitting or mowing lawns. I figured that an internship would be a great place to start, so in the early fall I decided to apply to a couple of them. The internship with linked learning was a great way to not only get my feet wet in the world of jobs, but also provided an opportunity to learn.

International negotiations. Two very scary words I heard my sophomore year. And even scarier was that I actually had to participate in these so called “international negotiations.” In the end it wasn’t as scary as I thought. In fact, it was a really cool experience. But before I start ranting about how fun it was, let me explain what international negotiations at Millikan High School is and how it relates to my academy, PEACE, which focuses on social justice, not business.

At Kearny High School, where I am a senior, we are divided into four small schools that specialize in different career paths. I chose to enter the School of Digital Media and Design (DMD) because I was interested in computers and graphic design. Over the years, I have come to realize that I not only chose an interest, but a career pathway.

Excitement, happiness, and accomplishment are all things I felt when I found out I was interning at Kaiser Permanente’s Baldwin Park Medical Center. I worked very hard on my application because I knew it would be difficult to get accepted – this was the first class of interns from my school, and there were only four openings for this internship. I put a lot of pressure on myself to earn this amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The feeling of seeing your hard work payoff is indescribable.Last semester, I started an unpaid internship working to prepare for the WorldLink Youth Town Meeting – a conference bringing together high school students from across Southern California and Mexico to listen to guest speakers present about global issues. Six hours a week, I’d come in to the office that I shared with my boss and co-interns. It was great, but dealing with the usual wear and tear of an internship was especially rough when – every second Friday – my friends with jobs would get their paychecks.